Sweden’s Hexpol Acquires US Rubber Compounder Kardoes

Gislaved, Sweden – Polymer band rubber compounder Hexpol has signed an agreement to acquire the business of US-based Kardoes Rubber Co. for $31.8 million.

Kardoes Rubber, with 90 employees at a manufacturing facility in LaFayette, Alabama, had a turnover of $3 million in 2013. The acquisition price will reportedly be paid upon completion of the acquisition, which is expected later this month.

Consolidation of the two businesses is expected in August.

The Hexpol Group develops and manufactures advanced rubber compounds, gaskets for plate heat exchangers, and plastic and rubber materials for truck and castor wheel applications. Customers are primarily OEM manufacturers of plate heat exchangers and trucks, systems suppliers to the global automotive and engineering industries, the energy sector and medical equipment manufacturers.

The Group is organized in two business areas, Hexpol Compounding and Hexpol Engineered Products, which generated slightly more than $8 billion in revenue in 2013 from production units located in Asia, Mexico and Eastern Europe.

Currently, more than 95 percent of sales are to customers outside Sweden.